Parents who are forced to take time off work when their child's school is
closed will be able to buy insurance against this for the first time.

Towergate Insurance has launched a £30-a-year product, which will cover parents in the event of snow, flooding or boiler failure closing their child's school. There is no requirement for the parent to prove loss of earnings or increased childcare costs to be able to claim.

More than 19,000 schools in England closed in the first week of December last year, because of heavy snow and freezing temperatures. The policy will cost no more for those who live in areas of Britain that are more prone to poor weather and will pay out after schools are closed for more than one day.

Parents will receive £100 per child for every subsequent day of school closure, up to a maximum of £500 a year per child. The policy can also be bought by people whose children attend local childcare facilities such as nurseries.

Jonathan Walker, the head of Towergate, said: "There's no doubt that unpredictable weather conditions are causing more and more schools to close. This leaves many parents with the hassle of taking time off work or trying to arrange extra child care at short notice."

He said that parents could buy the cover for £30 per child and added that it would only pay out 14 days after customers had taken out the policy, to stop people buying it as soon as snowy weather is forecast.

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Mr Walker said that more companies are inserting adverse weather policies into their employment contracts, meaning that employees will not be paid if they are unable to attend work because of adverse weather.

Employees have the right to unpaid time off for emergencies relating to dependants, or to find emergency child care.

Emergency nannies and other child care can, however, be very expensive.

A 2010 survey from the Daycare Trust, the childcare charity, into the cost of childcare found that there had been a rise in costs above the rate of inflation for all types of childcare. The survey also found that 58pc of Family Information Services across Britain had reported a lack of child care – with half of all local authorities reporting insufficient child care for older and disabled children.

The policy will also be available as a fund-raising product for school Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs). They will be paid £2 commission for every parent who buys a policy, although they will not be allowed to advise them to buy it.

David Butler, chief executive of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "We are delighted to be working with Towergate; not only is this a policy which many parents will welcome, but it can provide a welcome boost to the fund-raising efforts of parent teacher associations too."